Welcome again to Elevated, the podcast dedicated to helping you build a better Kitchen & Bath Design business. I’m your host, Brandy Lawson, and in today’s episode I’m sharing the specifics on how we created and use templates for client communication here at FieryFX.
In our business, we send a lot of routine messages to clients, and most of them need the client to take some kind of action. But here’s the thing – these messages don’t always originate from the same place. Sometimes they’re sent from Gmail, other times from Mailchimp for email marketing reviews, or even from ClickUp so that client communications can be paired with specific tasks. And let’s not forget about using Google Doc comments!
How We Built Client Templates with AI & TextBlaze
With messages going out from all these different platforms, we quickly realized we needed a way to create templates that could be used consistently across all of them. Enter: TextBlaze.
But before we get into the magic of TextBlaze, let’s talk about how we actually created these templates. We started by pulling the last several messages that had been sent for each routine task – things like email reviews, social concepts reviews, social post reviews, monthly dashboard deliveries, and ad reviews. Then, we pasted these into AI telling it our objective for each communication to have it help us craft templates based on these real-world examples.
Implementing Templates Across Platforms
So, now we have a Google Doc with all our templates. Yay! And so, how to use them?
Back to TextBlaze. This handy Chrome extension allows us to use our templates in any app that we use in the browser. Gmail? Check. MailChimp? You bet. ClickUp, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and even Monday.com? TextBlaze has got us covered. Each team member just needed to install the Chrome extension and sign into our TextBlaze account. Oh – you’re wondering how much this fantastic tool is going to cost you? There’s a free forever tier that we started with to try it out and see how it would work. We did end up wanting to go to paid Pro tier for up to 1,000 templates, and it only set us back $36 for the year. I think we got a return on investment in the first 3 uses.
Maximizing Efficiency with Dynamic Templates
But the real power of using templates in TextBlaze is that they can include variables and pull in outside information. For example, when we’re sending a monthly social review, we can use a variable for the month, so the template always references the correct time period. Or, when we’re sending an email review, we can instruct clients to respond in the ClickUp task and link it by having the task URL pulled from our clipboard. If you want to get real fancy you can even set up dynamic rules (like if/then) or pull in a larger set of data from a spreadsheet.
The result of using templates in TextBlaze has been transformative for our client communication. We’ve achieved absolute consistency in our messaging, no matter who on the team is sending it. This makes delegating tasks a breeze, because we know that the communication will always be on-brand and include all the necessary information.
How Templates Enhance Clarity and Efficiency with TextBlaze
Plus, our templates provide clarity on what we need from clients, making it easier for them to respond and keep projects moving forward. And for us, using templates has brought a new level of ease and efficiency to our processes. It’s even made creating SOPs a snap because we can reference using the TextBlaze template.
So, if you find yourself drowning in routine client communications, consider creating templates and using a tool like TextBlaze to implement them across all your platforms. Trust me, your future self (and your clients) will thank you.
What will you do this week to help improve your client communications? I’d love to hear what actions you are taking, you can message me on Instagram using @fieryfx. Next up, we’ll switch gears from clients to finances. Tune in to the next episode where we’ll talk about using AI on the money side of your business.
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